Page 50 - Thetha Issue 7

SUSTAINABILITY

1st
We have the
green Business School in South Africa

ur focus is on
modern silviculture
technologies and
“Opioneering research
in this field in collaboration with
São Paulo State University (UNESP)
in Brazil,” says Dr Muedanyi
Ramantswana, the Forestry
Programme Coordinator in the School
of Natural Resource Science and
Management on the George Campus.
Silviculture is the science of
planting and tending to forests for
diverse needs such as structural
timber, pulp, paper, packaging and
a variety of other uses, including
for renewable energy, renewable
products and carbon sequestration.
Currently, Brazil is the leader
in modernised silviculture, with
8–10 million hectares of planted
forests, whereas South Africa has
approximately 1.2 million hectares.
“They have the economies of scale
to invest in purpose-built, large
scale and technologically advanced
machinery that is purpose-built for
forestry,” Dr Ramantswana explains.
“Machinery there has been
automated to enable it to do most
of the work – from soil preparation
(tilling) to pitting (making holes in
the soil to plant the trees), planting,
irrigating, weeding, pruning and
harvesting. Certain applications can
be performed at night to use the time
efficiently.”
Historically in South Africa,
the early to late-1900s saw the
introduction and expansion of Growing demand for wood
plantation forests. Over time, most
of the operations have been done The demand for wood and wood-based resources has continued to grow.
manually, but since about 2012, This includes the exponential demand for packaging (which is recycled)
some of the larger companies started in the online delivery market, as well as the drive for renewable wooden
introducing technology for greater buildings using cross-laminated timber buildings. This is being studied
efficiency. For example, a person in the School of Natural Resource Science and Management’s wood
using a pitting-head machine can technology programme.
do up to 2 500 pits in a shift, while a A variety of other biomaterials are derived from plantation trees,
person doing the same work manually including cleaning products, toothpaste and medicine. The lignin from
with a road pick is limited to less than trees is one of the most abundant natural organic wood polymers used by
500 pits in the same time. forestry companies in a wide variety of products. This includes being used
Mechanised operations also for improved particle dispersion in concrete; in the manufacture of coal
enhance accuracy and consistency. briquettes and as a binding agent in chipboard.
Pitting machines and GPS systems

48 | Thetha Edition 7 | 2023